The Anchorage Art History Museum is in downtown Anchorage and provides a great historical perspective on Alaskan history and native American culture. This genuine Alaskan Eskimo totem greets you as you enter the museum.

A close up of the Raven on the top of the totem. In Western Native American lore, the Raven is revered as creator, the bringer of light and as a trickster.

The building itself is a tasteful combination of modern accents inspired by Alaskan Heritage. Shown here is the skylight which reminds me, anyhow, of a lighthouse.

Closer than I would want to be to a live brown bear.

Musk Ox, actually looking considerably cleaner and better groomed compared to the live beast.

A Native American Canoe Frame. The frame would typically be covered by tightly stitched and sealed skins, most likely from the abundant seals that live throughout the Alaskan waters.

A preserved Native American boat, showing the tightly spread skins that keep it afloat. I'll stick to plastic and aluminum for my sea kayak, thank you. It does, however, give some context as to how precarious and risky those bowhead whale hunts were.

Photo of a Native American boat on the snow.

Native American crew hunting a bowhead whale. In ancient times, An entire village's survival often depended upon a successful hunt upon which the whole village subsisted for considerable time. The Native American lore reveres the bowhead whale and thanks it for it's generosity. Thanking an animal for sacrificing itself for your survival seems very different from a Western point of view where we would be tempted to minimize the role of the animal victim.

The harpoon, a Western introduction, probably made the hunt a little more efficient and a little less risky.

Harpooned Bowhead whale.

The Bowhead whale has been hauled onto the ice, likely through the hard work of the village, and will be divided up.

Native American Art reveres the Bowhead and the hunt.

Again, the hunt is reflected in Native American Art, this time in scrimshaw.

A humpback whale being hunted by killer whales. Scrimshaw.

Native American clothing. Those pants bear a stunning resemblance to baby seals, don't they? Do you suppose?

This picture pretty much settles it. Those seals are very central to Native Alaskan survival for everything from clothes to skin for boats to, in this case, little seal shaped floats.

A cerimonial bowl. In ancient times, the tribes traded intricate and sometimes lavish gifts. The thought behind the gifts was reportedly proving to the enemy that your tribe was so rich and powerful that an enemy tribe would surely perish if they invaded.

A Chugach Eskimo Mask (Prince William Sound). The traditional masks were made of wood (as this one is).

Inupiaq Eskimo Souvenir Mask. This souvenir mask is carved out of whale bone rather than wood but is based upon/inspired by the original wood masks. These whale bone masks were sold to non-natives (aka tourists & travellers) in the mid-20th century.

Carving: native Alaskan Eskimo man.

The great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 was between 8.4 and 8.6 on the richter scale. Over 106 people died throughout Alaska, mostly killed by Tsunamis, some which reached heights of 67 meters (Shoup Bay, Valdez Inlet). Some areas east of Kodiak raised up by 30 feet while other areas in Portage dropped by 8 feet (Pflaker, 1964). The Ghost forests, seen on the drive from Anchorage to Seward, resulted from that drop and the resulting salt water inundation. Alaskan earthquakes are caused by the Pacific plate subducting under the North American plate creating a subduction zone referred to as the Aleutian-Alaska megathrust zone.